Thursday, September 11, 2008

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

McCain pulled an Obama and walked out on stage a day early to be seen with Miss VP. Missing from the wardrobe was the all important flag lapel pin which the Republicans have deemed necessary in order to prove you don't hate America.

What were the speeches about? Well, just take the speeches from 2004 and replace 9/11 with POW and you have them all. As for Sarah Palin's all you need to do is listen to all the Republican talking points from any Fox News show. She repeated them all. Don't expect anything original, much less honest, from the Republican party, they ran out of ideas after Lincoln.

Sunday, August 31, 2008

In order to prevent a breakout of Democracy in Minneapolis police are raiding homes of anyone suspected of being an anarchist. Because, in Bush's America, being an anarchist is considered probable cause and therefore all actions to quash their Constitutional rights is okay. Actually, you don't need to be an anarchist, just being a non-violent hippy who wants to distribute food to the poor is enough to be listed a terroristic threat. Watch out Osama Bin Laden, the Bush administration might look at your long hair and think you are a terrorist and go after you.

Why mention what's happening at the Grand Old Pedophile's Klan rally since it's not related to Kansas? Well because fascism doesn't remain locked inside a border and pro-McCain Kansas would welcome jackbooted thugs breaking down doors to hunt for imaginary enemies of the state.

I looked at the list of items they considered to be terrorist tools and I have plenty. I have empty bottles, because I recycle and bottles go into the recycle bin. I have paint because I plan on repainting the bedroom. I have an axe and machete because I needed to cut limbs from the huge ice storm a couple years back. I have nails and screws because of home repair needs. I have gasoline because I run a lawnmower. I have a computer, I'm using it right now to tell you how much of a threat to America that I am. Yes, these are some of the items mentioned on search warrants by the Republican Brownshirts that raided homes of people using their First Amendment right to peacefully assemble.

Thankfully Wichita has never gotten as bad as Minneapolis. Sure, I've been harassed by police for carrying signs that bore some message protesting Cheney,Bush and/or Tiahrt. I've been stalked and videotaped by the local police for the "crime" a speaking out against war criminals but I have yet to get my door knocked down by police. However allowing fascism to spread happens through negligence and by supporting fascists for office. It's no surprise which political party has spent hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on protecting America from Americans. It's no surprise which party turned spy satellites on it's people or formed a privatized spy program, or funds Blackwater to kill people in New Orleans who simply wanted to survive a flood. John McCain, Todd Tiahrt, and the other Republican goons have expressed their contempt for the American people and they can't wait to fulfill Prescott Bush's dream of a fascist America.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

The Wichita City Council and the Wichita Police Department have conspired together to violate the Kansas and Federal Constitution. In a faux attempt to combat neighborhood graffiti the Council has slapped itself on the back by approving religious graffiti despite full knowledge of its illegality.

Graffiti is a problem in my neighborhood with annoying tagging on street signs, houses, and fences. In an effort to combat graffiti on utility poles a local artist was enlisted to paint a mural of Jesus Christ on one of the poles. The Wichita Police Department, while on the public dole, aided in this process although the entire event was claimed to be free of taxpayer support. Not like that is really necessary since the Council approved of a religious theme despite numerous court ruling prohibiting the endorsement of religion by a government body.

Not only is the act a violation of the First Amendment to the Federal Constitution prohibiting promotion of religion, it is a violation of the 7th Amendment to the Kansas Bill of Rights which clearly states: nor shall any person be compelled to attend or support any form of worship; nor shall any control of or interference with the rights of conscience be permitted, nor any preference be given by law to any religious establishment or mode of worship.

So where does one go to complain about a crime committed by the local government and the police department?I've contacted the Freedom From Religion Foundation and plan on contacting the American Civil Liberties Union with the hope of establishing a lawsuit which will sue for the removal of the government endorsed religious graffiti. The city should have been aware that such a blatant disregard for the Constitutions would result in a costly lawsuit, but seeing that they are more than happy to toss taxpayer money away to movie theaters, arenas and private airline companies, I doubt they really care.

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Remember the good ol' days of peace and prosperity under President Clinton and President-elect Gore? The left America with a budget surplus which eventually got passed onto governor Bush. The national debt was $5 trillion and the tide of wasteful supply-side economics was being turned back after 12 years of disaster economics.

Then Bush was appointed to office despite losing the popular and electoral vote. Not to fear, we had economic conservatives like Tiahrt, Brownback and Roberts ready to undue the "tax and spend" liberals who were destroying the economy. Well, if you take Greenspan's view destroying the economy means budget surpluses, higher wages and low unemployment.

Eight years later Bush promises to leave us with nearly an $800 billion budget deficit taking the national debt over $10 trillion dollars. Yup, Bush and the economic conservatives managed to create a larger debt than Bush Sr. and Reagan combined.

Tax and spend liberals got replaced with borrow and spend conservatives. Our nation's infrastructure falls apart and the conservatives solution is to privatize the commons. Need road repair? Simple, sell your roads to Spain and pay a toll the moment you step out of your driveway. Why have a public water system that has provided clean, inexpensive water? Simply sell it through a no-bid contract to a company that donates heavily to the Republican party and have your rates increase as CEOs skim 20% off the top for profits. Folks like McCain demand we privatize social security although he doesn't advocate that position ever since the stock market went back to 2000 levels (you know, when Clinton left office and Bush took over).

So what does Tiahrt propose to turn back his years of economic failure? Nothing new, the usual, tax cuts, removing tariffs, and keeping consumers from suing businesses that taint their products with toxins. Just the same crap that Republicans have been pushing that helped us get into this problem.

Huge tax cuts for the rich and corporations have only put more tax burden on the working people. To deal with tax shortfalls the country borrows more money from Saudi Arabia and China so we can pay back that money with interest. Tiahrt wants to cut more taxes and borrow more so we can have larger budget deficits.

Tiahrt wants to reduce trade barriers so we can send more jobs overseas. Tariffs keep jobs in America, but Tiahrt wants to tax labor rather than tax consumption. Does it make sense that a tv in America should cost as much as one made in China? Nope. Increasing tariffs means imported electronics will cost the same as ones made in America but your purchase of an American television will mean the money and jobs stay in America. As it is if we make a car in America and send it to China we pay a 20% tariff. But if a car is made in China and sent to America they pay a 2% tariff. No wonder so many jobs are sent overseas, but Tiahrt wants more of that.

And lastly, Tiahrt's call to end "frivolous lawsuits". One example of a frivolous lawsuit is the people in Alaska whose lives were ruined by Exxon's massive oil spill. They fought for years in court, all the way to the Supreme Court for compensation. Some people didn't even live that long to see the culmination. The end result was the Supreme Court reduced the damages Exxon had to pay to the equivalent of a couple weeks profit, $507 million. When Tiahrt refers to justices "legislating from the bench" he solely means those justices who decide in the favor of the people, not the corporations.

Senator Betts offers real solutions to deal with the economic problems. Increase regulations to prevent things like the banking disasters (Tiahrt voted for the deregulation which led to the problem), increase barriers to protect American jobs which will also bring in more revenue to reduce the deficit, and eliminate the cost Iraq occupation which Tiahrt supports.

Republicans like Tiahrt have made being a fiscal conservative more like a child who inherits his grandparents mansion and millions of dollars to simply blow the money on liquor and whores and never once maintain the upkeep of the mansion, leaving that to his own grandkids.

No, the best thing is to be called an economic liberal since it leads to prosperity. Since Tiahrt is a Christian and constantly reminds everyone of that fact let's turn to his Bible and what it says about liberals:

"The vile person shall be no more called liberal, nor the churl said to be bountiful. For the vile person will speak villainy, and his heart will work iniquity, to practice hypocrisy, and to utter error against the Lord, to make empty the soul of the hungry, and he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail. The instruments of the churl are evil: he deviseth wicked devices to destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy speak right. But the liberal deviseth liberal things; and by liberal things shall he stand." (Isaiah 32:5-8 KJV)

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Jennifer Giroux is managing Phill Kline's campaign. Giroux is the President of Women Influencing the Nation (WIN, get it?), a reich-wing hate group that Democrats, the ACLU and those who don't believe in Christmas are responsible for creating tsunamis that kill thousands of people. It has recently been reported by the Kansas City Star that an act of honesty hit the Kline campaign and appeals for funds were sent out on WIN letterhead admitting that Kline is merely an employ of the anti-abortion groups. On Kline's campaign website, "Stand with truth" they claim it is all a big conspiracy by the Kansas City Star to smear Kline or something. I have trouble wading through BS sometimes so I didn't pay much attention. Anywho, WIN joins Operation Rescue in endorsing Kline anti-abortion inquisition. Operation Rescue previously lost their tax exempt status after allegedly campaigning against President John Kerry and engaging in money laundering.

Giroux, a Catholic and mother of nine receiving public assistance, has made a small name for herself in the reich-wing nuttery of the anti-abortion movement. She accused Abraham Foxman, of the Anti-Defamation League of hate crimes for not absolutely loving Mel Gibson's snuff film about an Aryan Jesus. On an episode of the comedy show Scarborough Country Jennifer said it's too bad that the Jews killed Christ but we can't do anything about it now. That suffered a rebuke from Rabbi Shmuley Boteach,

Jennifer responded by condemning him to Hell for not being a Christian.

More nuttery ensues as on Jennifer's organization's website she asks for the Catholic Church to refuse the Communion to Gov. Kathleen Sebelius for her support of reproductive freedom. The Catholic Church is opposed to contraception and abortion even in cases where the woman would be killed as in a tubal pregnancy. However, there is no similar condemnation for Phill Kline who supports the death penalty which is in violation of the Church's position. This clearly indicates that Jennifer is using religion to advance her political ambitions rather than simply being a follower of the church.

Why should any of this be an issue? After all, Kline is going to get his ass handed to him in the election. I'm just saying it's nice to see what sort of people Kline surrounds himself with and expose the agenda of the far reich in Kansas politics.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Todd Tiahrt's efforts to convince us that drilling for more domestic oil will decrease gasoline costs will be more successful if he sports a moustache and speaks in a silly accent ala Daniel Day Lewis. The Wichita Eagle today ran a great article pointing out Tiahrt's argument for more drilling and how Tiahrt is completely owned by the oil companies, he largest campaign donor.

Let's look at the basic facts and show why Tiahrt has no solutions. First off America provides 2% of the global reserves for oil. America also consumes 25% of the world's oil production. Unless Tiahrt can produce a long enough straw to suck Saudi Arabia's milkshake we will never produce enough oil to get us off of foreign oil nor will our meager reserves have an affect on the global market price for oil. However, given that we consume so much if we were to reduce our consumption then that would have a grander and more immediate affect.

When you figure that 70% of our oil consumption goes towards transportation the smartest thing to do would be to increase fuel efficiency in our automobiles. When it comes to leadership on reducing our consumption by increased fuel efficiency Tiahrt has failed us. He has continually voted against higher CAFE standards. All the while when Republicans were in the majority in Congress higher CAFE standards were voted down. It wasn't until Democrats took the majority in Congress was there a minor increase in the standards but even those were watered down in order to get a majority vote in the Senate where there are only 49 Democrats. When higher standards were proposed in the Clinton administration the Republicans responded by passing measures to block any higher standards. This is the leadership Republicans like Senator McCain, Roberts and Rep. Tiahrt have shown over the years. They kept us in this mess and it will take Democratic leadership to fix the problems Republicans caused, yet again.

Right now the oil companies are sitting on numerous approved drilling permits that they have refused to exploit. More land is set aside for drilling than has been set aside for wind and solar combined. Companies like Exxon have been sitting on permits in the Alaskan North Slope for over 30 years and when Alaska tried to get the unused leases back Exxon sued.

The entire purpose for the oil companies wanting more leases is to generate claims of higher reserves which increases their company's stock value. Currently oil companies are using their excess profits for stock buy back programs which increases the value of the stock. The largest shareholders in companies like Exxon are the Board of Directors so they are just making themselves richer while you pay more at the tank. The secondary effect of hogging up more leases is it prevents independent wildcatters from getting in on the action. When the large companies can dominate the supply they have more control over the price. Have you ever heard of a company complaining it had too much money and just lowered prices out of charity?

Drilling in ANWR will reduce gas prices by a penny per gallon once that oil hits the market. It's expected to hit the market in about 10 years so drilling in ANWR isn't an immediate solution, it isn't a solution at all. Tiahrt promises it will result in cheaper gas, then again, the oil from Iraq was supposed to be $20 a barrel now since we invaded.

The quickest solution is to increase efficiency. Improved aerodynamics, low rolling resistance tires, carbon fiber bodies, integrated battery assistance, plug in hybrids, all electric cars, these are all technologies that we currently have that can reduce oil demand. Just like America rapidly transformed its economy to deal with the fascist threat so too can America convert to a more efficient economy.

Tiahrt has proven his failure in leadership. He has continually voted against higher fuel efficiency standards, he has voted against financing research into alternative energy, and he stands beside Bush while he threatens oil producing nations with war thereby causing commodity traders to increase the price of oil on Wall Street. Given his record of failure the best alternative is to support Donald Betts, who, along with Senator Obama, have a plan to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and truly lower gas prices.